The district is building a new campus for Kenton Ridge for about $57 million with a three-story building that will have separate entries for the high school and elementary school side.
Over the last few months, the cafeteria and auditorium floors have been completed, plus terrazzo flooring was installed in the main lobby; the woodwork is done; furniture, tables and chairs are in place in the media center; the countertops and carpet squares have been installed in the elementary office areas; furniture has been moved into the clinic and one of the principal’s offices; the bleachers have been installed and some painting done in the main gym; and some classrooms have been finished with desks, furniture and cubbies.
“It is rapidly coming along, and (the media center) will definitely be a main hub of our building here at Kenton Ridge,” Kronour said.
Outside at the track and stadium, crews put in some drainage tile while working on the all-weather track, and there will also be new home bleachers and a press box.
“We are on a very aggressive timeline to get all this done. (But) we are confident we will have a new track, stands and press box here at Kenton Ridge as we move into the fall season,” he said. “And the same thing is basically being done as far as the track getting redone at Northeastern, and there’ll be some retaining wall work done here as well as Northeastern.”
There have been some challenges, Kronour said, including a minor issue with the Cougars’ accent color on the terrazzo floor in the main lobby, but that has since been fixed.
“We had a little bit of extra work to do on the Cougar, but it is complete, and (crews) will get a last coat of sealer down on this and get it cleaned up, but this area is just about finished, and we are very pleased with how it turned out,” he said.
The construction project is still under budget.
Kronour said funds are allocated for tracks for both schools, a support building around the Northeastern Athletic Complex, stands and a press box at Kenton Ridge, shelter houses at both schools and additional playground equipment at both buildings.
Although crews have been working to get the project done, Cleve Gregory, the superintendent of Shook Construction, retired last week. This is the company handling the project, and Gregory has been on it from the start.
“I’ve worked in a lot of districts, and the district here has just been so good to work with. Everybody, they just have been a real team player with us and have helped the project immensely,” he said.
The old Kenton Ridge and Northeastern high schools will be demolished at a later date. However, the items inside Kenton Ridge as well as the Northridge and Rolling Hills buildings and its contents will be auctioned off at a later date at https://www.govdeals.com/.
A building dedication and ribbon-cutting for the new Kenton Ridge is scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 19, at 2250 Montego Drive.
For the 2023-24 school year, changes are planned regarding school hours and transportation. The elementary school hours will be 7:45 a.m. to 2:10 p.m., and sixth-grade students will remain on this schedule. The middle and high school hours will be 8:25 a.m. to 3:15 p.m., which will better accommodate the new building’s pick-up and drop-off schedules with the elementary school; and students in grades kindergarten through eight can use Latchkey from 6:30 to 8 a.m. and 2:10 to 5:45 p.m.
As for transportation, some busing changes, such as numbers and times may be impacted, but a new app will be launching to track route times.
The district built a new campus for Northeastern for about $42 million. For the two new campuses, the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission picked up about 40% of the cost.
The district combined several school buildings into the two new buildings, moving from Northeastern High and Middle School, Kenton Ridge High School, Northridge Middle and Elementary School, Rolling Hills Elementary and South Vienna into just two buildings going forward.
The Kenton Ridge building will open this fall on the property near the current Kenton Ridge High School, and the Northeastern site opened last fall on the northeastern side of the district, adjacent to former South Vienna school.
Voters approved a 37-year, $79 million bond issue for two new Pre-K-through-12 facilities in May 2018.
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